Talking about yourself in the third person...

[Thejoyfulstar]

...as a parent.

Do you do it? Why do you do it? Is there a philosophy behind it or do you do it out of habit? Genuinely curious as I can't get my head around it at all.

I remember when I was a child, my friend's mother spoke in the third person ('Mummy's tired', for example). I remember wondering why she didn't just say 'I'm tired'.

I notice that most parents I know tend to do it, and I just always wondered why but didn't want to seem like I'm being critical by asking. I'm not, I just don't understand it.

I think I can get my head around saying it to a baby, maybe to get them to hear the word 'mama/mummy/mum' etc but once that's established, why continue? Maybe because I wasn't brought up with parents who did that it seems weird, but I can't imagine talking about myself in the third person ever. If I want to express myself I refer to I/me. Anyone else?

Happy to be enlightened!

Because children forget you're a person and referring to yourself as a person seems to remind them better than saying I.

It can also be an autistic thing. Autistic kids don’t always have the same sense of self identity as neurotypicals, and refer to themselves by the name others use for them.
For example, my DD (name changed) would, when a toddler, always say “Elizabeth she want choccy” rather than “I want choccy”.

My mum done this when I was a kid. Not sure when exactly it stopped but deffo doesn't do it now and I'm 27!

I do this with my 4 year old and always have done without even thinking Don't know why I've never actually thought about it until this thread! I'm